What is the best Big Screen TV?

Some really good questions Darrylhifi. I'll do my best to try and answer them all :)

First off, I read the same thing about Intel bowing out of LCoS. Very interesting.

As to whether Plasma and D-ILA will do 1080p, from what I've been told yes they will. Some D-ILA front projectors already do 1080p so I think that D-ILA RPTV's that are 1080p capable are going to be appearing soon. As to when Plasma sets will start 1080p, I'm not sure.

Re networks broadcating in 1080p, yes they will eventually do this (a few are already in talks about doing this), but it's going to be a while. With many stations just barely starting to change over to either 1080i or 720p, it's unlikely that many will want to spend even more money to make a change once again to go to 1080p (even though we know that's the ultimate). Probably really large metropolitan areas (like NYC and LA) will offer 1080p first.

Re Hi Def DVD, yes it is my understanding that it will indeed be 1080p. All the more reason to get a 1080p set :)

I hope I was able to answer all your questions. Thanks for picking my brain :)

SV

Check out the Sony's 70" LCD rear projection TV.

Eandylee why would he "Check out the Sony's 70" LCD rear projection TV" when that's almost twice the size of what he wants?

There are several ways to skin this cat - I for one really like my 42" Fujitsu plasma, NEC makes a decent panel too, and if you MUST have speakers, the Sony XBR is the best non-monitor panel I've seen. If you don't want to spend the approx 4-5k for a good plasma tv, or don't need the thin size / wall-mountability etc then that brings us to rear projection...

Rear pro will always suffer re: viewing angle, black levels, and so forth - but what you DO get is a big picture for the money.

The 42" sony 3x lcd rear pro is a very nice set and can easily be had for 2400. It's got the best black levels of any LCD set I've seen but LCD still produces a kinda murky dark grey.

I've seen some decent Toshiba and RCA rear pro DLP sets, but the rainbow thing still kills me. DLP typically has better blacks since it's reflective not transmissive (aka the light bounces off the chips not shines through it).

Which brings us to LCOS /D-ILA. The current entry level JVC piece was not as impressive as I thought, I had one on order, and when they arrived, I wasn't as excited as I thought - due, in no small part I'm sure, to the fact that the entry one is 52" vs the 42" Sony LCD that was sitting next to it. The LCD tv was far crisper looking, the LCOS just looked slightly out-of-focus no matter what we adjusted. The big advantage of LCOS is that it's a reflective technology like DLP but is 3 separate chips, so color separation is great, black levels are pretty darned good -- but JVCs implementation was anything but impressive... except maybe from a $ to size ratio... but you didn't want as big as 52 anyway...

Rumor has it that Sony's new high-end grand wega xbr and xs sets will be using LCOS instead of LCD in the coming year or so, supposedly the 70 or one of their upcoming flagship models already is... if you aren't in a rush this might be worth the wait, but that will be a year or two wait.

Personally, if you stick below 34" I say go CRT, and above, you'll never beat the black levels and image quality of a good plasma set - direct view technology blows away all but the best FRONT projection (such as the 777 from InFocus - but that's a nearly $30k projector plus you need a screen and a dark room).

Not a rumour but a fact -- Sony has a 70" LCOS set (they call their technology SXRD) that they claim (made at CEDIA in Sept.) will be out in January 2005. I saw this set, and it is by far the best RPTV set I've ever seen. At its projected price of $10,000, it is still a bargain. There is no front projector at anything near this price that would look that good on a 70" screen, even in a room with perfect light control. Mitsubishi had the misfortune of having its booth near the Sony booth at CEDIA where its $20,000 LCOS set looked dim and dingy by comparison. The Mitsubishi set was in a dark "cave" while the Sony was in a fairly well lit public area, but the Sony more than took that disadvantage in stride.

Each technology has its plusses and minuses. One of the plusses of digital microdisplay (DLP, LCOS, LCD) rear projection sets is they do not have to stretch non-widescreen pictures to account for burn-in problems. Personally, I much prefer watching everything in Original Aspect Ratio (OAR), which is a limitation with CRT and plasma based sets.

Bruce